A Great Start to a Summer of Riding

Every year I start my season with a trip to Moab, Utah with a good buddy, some camping gear, and a cooler of the best beer money can buy. This year was no different. In May I left my home in Colorado for a long and glorious weekend of camping and riding in Moab.

Driving in a car for 6 hours can be torture on the mind. However, add a buddy that you’ve been great friends with for over 2 decades and the drive in a car becomes a ROAD TRIP! Topics of discussion included women, bikes, work, bikes, slapstick humor, bikes… etc. You get the point. The trip was a blur and we arrived in Moab around 1AM and started looking for a campsite. By 3AM we were fast asleep and dreaming sweet dreams under the starry sky.

If you’ve ever ridden in Moab you’ll probably know about the shuttle run know as Porcupine Rim Trail. This is a beast of a long descent that treats you to incredible views and very little uphill. Nearly every shop in town has a shuttle that will take riders to the top for a nominal fee. I’d never done the shuttle and to be honest with you I’m pretty cheap when it comes to spending money for a shuttle that takes you to a place that I can ride to.

Given the fact that it was the beginning of the summer, the Porcupine Rim Trail looked like one hell of a good ride, but not for the reason that you may be thinking. You may be thinking that given my early season fitness level I’d be interested in taking the shuttle up and riding blissfully down the trail. Nope.

Given my early season condition I found no better way to kick-start my training than to ride Porcupine Rim from the bottom to the top. It took very little convincing to get my buddy - who is part mountain goat - to warm-up to the idea of ascending Porcupine Rim Trail.

The ascent did not disappoint! Neither did the views! We stopped at some of the more aggressive sections of trail and watched as the guys with the ‘Big Hit’ machines took some straight lines down the gnarly trail. I think of myself as pretty aggressive on the downhill, but some of the lines these riders were taking would have had this x-country boy scared and walking. Equally as cool as watching others go down was the fact that those same riders stopped and watched the two of us ride up those aggressive lines. Both groups were impressed with the strengths of the others. It was great!

The next several hours were spent climbing, and climbing, and climbing, until we finally reached the top. As we descended into Moab we passed by Slickrock Trail. We thought about making it into an epic day and riding Slickrock too, but opted to save the trail for the next day. Instead we headed for the campsite and the cooler full of ice-cold beer.

After the warm day spent in the saddle I felt nothing but satisfaction. Satisfaction in a day well spent, satisfaction with my level of fitness, and satisfaction in the ice-cold beer that gave me a reason to sit back, relax, and enjoy the beginning of a great summer of riding.